As expected, work has really picked up in the last few weeks and after two months of putting my research somewhat on the back burner in order to do whatever Veerni needed, I am finally conducting interviews, observing HIV/AIDS discourse at local hospitals and NGOs, watching shows about child marriage, etc.
This week, I started by spending two days shadowing the HIV/AIDS counselor at the local government hospital. Though locals will say that the care at the hospital is one of the best, the place was pretty appalling. The floors and walls were absolutely filthy and people were camped out on the floor throughout the building (either waiting for care or waiting to visit their friends and family). One day, the power went out six times in two hours (at which point, I stopped my tally). I'm assuming (a.k.a. I desperately hope) that the ICU and surgical wings are hooked up to a generator, but the section I was in certainly was not.
During one of the days I was there, a woman from one of Veerni's villages was in the ICU for kidney failure. She was awaiting dialysis, so I went with the nurses and social worker to visit her and make sure everything was going well. The ICU was luckily a bit more clean than the rest of the hospital (which is not saying much), but I was truly shocked when we had to leave our shoes at the door. Granted, in India, it's thought that shoes are absolutely filthy and must be left outside before entering homes, temples, and even some shops. But to do this when entering a hospital wing?!? I cannot even begin to explain how uncomfortable and strangely vulnerable it felt to be walking around barefoot in such a place.
The HIV clinic was really fascinating as well. In terms of confidentiality, they seemed to do a terrible job (the desk was cluttered with stacks of booklets outlining patients' CD4 counts, ART, etc. without anything hiding the name and the village name that was printed on the top of each book). But in terms of everything else, the place seemed to be doing a good job of documenting each case very clearly and of providing care in a relatively efficient manner.
The waiting room was crowded, mostly with men, but with many women and children as well. The walls were covered with the standard HIV prevention posters, explaining how to put on male and female condoms, how one can and cannot get HIV, etc.
In terms of the people I met in these two days, many were married women (usually in their 30s), and usually with one HIV positive child in tow. Many also traveled many, many miles to come to the hospital (some from a city that's a 7 hour bus ride away), and glimpsing at the charts, it was clear that many had stopped their meds for a period of time because they couldn't get to the hospital.
One woman we met was a recent widow (her husband died of AIDS related causes a few months back) and she was just finding out she was positive at the age of 25. She was there with one of her children.
Another person (a young man) came in because he has an HIV-positive brother with psychiatric problems, who apparently bit him really hard on his arm. The viral load of saliva is slim to none, but apparently, his brother was bleeding from his mouth, so the counselor needed to administer counseling and PEP.
The one amazing thing about the Indian system is that ART is administered for free, and as far as I could tell, this actually is true. But with lack of food and the need to spend a lot of time and money getting to the hospital, adherence is certainly an issue.
Yesterday, I also started my interviews in the villages! I interviewed six women in a village about 60 km from Jodhpur. The women were extremely eager to talk and, to my pleasant surprise, were not the least bit embarrassed when asked about sexual issues. One surprising thing (though not surprising given the statistics for the region) is that only 2/6 of the women had ever heard of HIV. This village in particular does not have any diagnosed cases, but I still found this to be quite shocking.
In terms of child marriages, it is as commonplace in the region as the statistics lead you to believe. All but two of the women were married well before eighteen and two of the women specifically mentioned that they were "given to their husband" to consummate the marriage prior to their first menses (one was 12, the other was 15).
The interviews, as you may expect, were extremely moving. I will definitely tell more personal stories later, but quite frankly, I'm pretty emotionally drained from just these six. What was wonderful, though, was that at the end of the interviews all the women seemed to gather together and were so grateful to have their stories heard. They were also all eager for me to tell their stories abroad. It was something I didn't quite expect, but it felt wonderful. According to these women, they discuss sex and some of these issues with friends in their community, but they are not often given the chance to talk about their fear on their wedding day or the state of their marriage.
Yesterday, I also interviewed a man who runs a local NGO that deals with HIV/AIDS in Jodhpur, particularly with sex workers (as I said, when it rains, it pours). While most of what I learned was not new, we did discuss the government's role (or lack there of) in all of this and it was fascinating. I will be going with him to his fieldsites in the upcoming week, so we'll what that has in store.
And finally, also yesterday, Govind introduced me to Balika Vadhu, a brand new, extremely popular Hindi soap opera. It is set in rural Rajasthan and, quite perfectly, follows the life of a newly-married 12 year old girl. I kind of adore academic analyses of popular culture and was thrilled to find that there is currently a hugely popular TV show about child marriage! (It literally came out a month after I got here, and no one told me about it until last night. I now have to track down scripts or a DVD or something that I can get translated).
Well, that's it for now. As you can see, when it rains, it pours (after two months of struggling to get stuff together, I did an insane amount of work in just a few days).
I'm heading to Jaipur for the weekend (to visit a resource library on maternal health and then to sightsee) and then I will be spending part of Monday and Tuesday in Agra, finally gazing admiringly at the Taj Mahal.
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